Shaheen Bagh market reopens after five months, struggles to manage losses ahead of Eid

New Delhi: The stretch of road number 13A of Shaheen Bagh, which includes all high-end fashion brands, has been the most affected marketplace in the last five months.

Much more than the business entities, which has faced financial losses in these phases of lockdown, the Shaheen Bagh market has been hit the worst.

It was first closed due to the longest-standing protest in the history of independent India over the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens, and then due to the coronavirus lockdown.

After the Delhi government’s order, shops are reopening on odd-even basis to help maintain social distancing. “Even with Eid around the corner, we have fewer footfall because of safety and travel restrictions,” Maqsood, a shopkeeper there, said.

Women protestors sat for three months at this very road against the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens, forcing over 150 shop owners to pull down their shutters.

The Supreme Court-appointed interlocutors attempted to reopen the shops thru dialogues, but that too failed. In the first three months shopkeepers faced an estimated loss of Rs 20 crores every month because of heavy stock of woollen cloths purchased by them during the winter season. Before they could recover from that, they were hit by the lockdown.

“We would have faced an estimated loss of hundreds of lakhs during these difficult times. We are struggling even at the time of festivity. Eid is just a few days from now but we don’t have customers. Even our shop workers have gone back home. Earlier, there used to be a strength of 2,000 workers which is 30 per cent lesser now,” Dr Nair, president of Shaheen Bagh Market Association, told Times Now

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